Nunley leads UK to 9-0 shutout over Razorbacks

Jack Pilgrim

No. 12 UK headed to Fayettville, Arkansas on Friday to begin an SEC series against Arkansas, where they came out victorious in blowout fashion winning 9-0.

Senior pitching standout Kelsey Nunley was close to finishing with another no-hitter on the year, giving up just one hit in the bottom of the fourth. Outside of the one hit, she had no earned runs, no walks, and 12 strikeouts, including nine strikeouts in a row to begin the game. With the shutout, Nunley’s ERA now stands at 0.88.

After a scoreless first inning for UK, the Cats went on to score in each inning after. A dominant second inning, where UK scored four runs led by a two run homer by Jenny Schaper, put the Cats up 4-0 at the end of the second. This was Schaper’s first-career home run as a Cat.

Abbey Cheek put the Cats on the board in the third, scoring a run off of a Nikki Sagermann single to put UK up 5-0. This was just one of several spectacular plays by Sagermann, who finished the day two for two at the plate, a walk, and a run.

In the fourth, Nunley didn’t just dominate on the mound, she dominated at the plate as well, hitting a two-run RBI to the wall to extend the lead to 7-0.

The Cats would finish the Razorbacks off in the fifth inning, where Hannah Huffman and Sarah Rainwater both scored to push the lead to 9-0, thus ending the game.

With the win, UK moves to 28-4 on the year, and 6-1 in conference play, surpassing their entire conference win total of 2015 just seven games in.

The girls are looking dominant as ever, and are poised for yet another run at a Women’s College World Series.

The Cats will now look ahead to the second game of the series tomorrow, where they will face the Razorbacks again at 2 p.m. ET on the SEC Network. Following Saturday’s matchup, UK will finish off the series on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET.